Devices and methods for monitoring of various conditions, or parameters, are well known, and include, for example, devices and methods for monitoring temperature, pressure, pH, strain, acceleration, radiation, conductivity and the like.
Monitoring, or measuring, devices for measuring temperature, for example, have ranged from relatively simple devices, such as thermometers, to far more sophisticated and/or complex devices, such as electronically operated temperature sensors and recorders.
Known parameter measuring devices have heretofore included, for example, electronic circuitry such as analog-to-digital converters for converting analog signals to digital signals and circuitry for processing digital signals and storing such signals in memory units, such as random access or read only memory units (see, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,109,527 and 4,324,138). In addition, such known devices have also included a microprocessor for controlling operation of the device (see, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,234,927 and 4,324,138).
Temperature monitoring devices have also heretofore been known and/or suggested which include temperature sensors capable of being transported through a monitoring area, such as an oven, in order to monitor the temperature within the oven with the sensed temperatures being recorded on a recorder positioned outside the oven (see, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 2,696,115).
Thus, while monitoring devices and methods have been heretofore known and/or utilized for diverse purposes, improvements in such devices and methods are still thought to be needed to provide better probes capable of utilization at a monitoring area with the information gained being thereafter readily recoverable from the probe.